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Report for ACE 2010 Conference, Taipei, Taiwan - Mili Tharakan
This year the ACE Conference was held at the Taiwan World Trade Exhibition Center, Taipei, from Nov 17 – 19th, 2010. A wide range of topics were covered during the talks, the topics ranged from games for down syndrome children, to theme park technology, educational games to teach social skills, technology for news presenters and DJs, games for skateboarders and many more. An interesting collection of demos were also on show for the creative showcase as well as a series of poster presentations. Liquid Interface had a bit of starting trouble but once the system was set up, it worked beautifully and visitors loved playing with this fluid instrument. One of the visitors found the system mesmerizing. At the end of the conference, Liquid Interfaces was voted as the best demo and we received Gold Award for Creative showcaseThis was a very encouraging response for the team to receive and inspired everyone to continue the hard work. Ambikraf was the only textile based installation presented and many viewers were extremely impressed to see work that was so silent, subtle and ‘natural’, and not screen based. They appreciated the natural textile quality we were able to maintain while still turning textiles into an interactive and animated surface. Many suggestions were made for how this could be scaled up for architectural use, as well as for wearables and visitors were interested to see where we could take this project next. The Zen was an interesting demo. It game that teaches people to practice zazen (sitting zen). It is a game that requires users to empty their mind and achieve a state of where they are thinking of nothing, just emptiness. The challenge is to try and do this while being agitated by sounds of mosquitoes buzzing around, sound of water etc. Mapping people’s mind through bio feedback is a simple technology but in this game it puts the player in an ironic situation where they are almost forcing themselves to think of nothing but in that very process they are thinking of not thinking. In the midst of all the other demos, it was definitely a much needed 10mins of stillness, to sit on the floor and focus ones thoughts. The papers presented were interesting but a little harder for me to follow. Following are some papers that I was inspired by:- Jecripe: stimulating cognitive abilities of children with down syndrome in pre-scholar age using a game approach. Andre Brandao (et. al) -''' '''Computer based tasks and games to help children with down syndrome in play school to learn motor skills, speaking. I was interested to hear about the research in this area and was immediately brainstorming about how this can extend further into the physical world. Autistic children love to touch and play different textures and materials in the physical world, these materials can engage them for much longer than a screen based game. I felt the scope of interactive textiles and TUI can be huge in this area. Digital Collages. Philippe Codognet – Palimpsest tool turns a series of digital photographs into a video flux with images melting into each other. The effect achieved by this tool is really beautiful and it would definitely be a tool that I would love to explore. The creators of this system worked with art photographers and the resulting images were just stunning, the photograph seemed liquid like as they merged one into the other, creating stunning effects and adding to the story of the photograph itself. The effect reminded me of burning film strips Interactive Simulations to Help Teenagers Cope When a Parent Has a Traumatic Brain Injury. Jean E. Dumas (et al.) – this was a very interesting talk for me as I had never thought of simulation and interactive games to be a possible solution for such a situation. I feel the interesting results that were produced was due to the collaboration across disciplines and in this case it was a story teller working with programmers and game developers to create a storyline that allowed teenagers to engage in a simple task such as making dinner for the night and all the possible results that could come out of it depending on the small decisions made along the way while playing the game. This game not only gave teenagers a better understanding of the situation they are in and how to handle the stress they face, to learning to be better caregivers and be empathetic. Since the research team is still conducting the user tests, no results were presented but I would definitely want to know what the teenagers feedback was and if such a system would enable them to cope better with the stress they face as young care givers. Cloud Display. Yutaka Tokuda (et al.) – creating a display out of smoke speaks volumes to me about our search for lightness. The immaterial/intangible quality of smoke has an aesthetic quality that an LED screen could never have. Although this is an extremely challenging project, I feel it leads the way in moving away from the screen based displays we are drowning in. The screen based display has become too ‘loud’ and ‘intrusive’ and projects such as Liquid interface and smoke display, mud tub are all examples of us trying to reach the deeper desires of humans who want more than just cold functional objects around us...and researchers are pushing boundaries of material science and engineering, as well as our minds to meet these inner desires. Being at the conference with seven others from the lab in it self was a special experience. It was fantastic to see the team work and support while setting up demos and preparing for presentations. This time together strengthened relationships, trust and comradery amongst lab members, I feel this is an extremely crucial ingredient for continued collaboration to create innovative and successful projects for the future. I greatly enjoyed my experience at this conference, the learning and insights I had, and also the interactions I was able to have with the others during the conference and after while exploring Taipei city by night. Mili John Tharakan